


Souls Of The Damned

by Charlie9646



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: AU, Bellatrix behaving like canon, Causes feels, Child Abuse (Severus’s father), Children, Dark, Dark Magic, Dark Past, Dark emotions, Dark fic, Death Eater fic, Emotional Baggage, F/M, Intense, Light Bondage, Marriage, Melancholy, Mental Illness, Mentions of Bellatrix wanting to harm her niece and actively considering, Mentions of harm Bellatrix wanting to harm her own children if she had them, Non canon death eaters - Freeform, Not all is what it seems, Oral Sex, Rose colored glasses, Smut, Snape isn't the the guy from the books!, Unforgivable Curses (Harry Potter), Unstable Characters, Violence against Bellatrix, problematic relationship, soulmate trope
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:09:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22673077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646
Summary: They wear the faults of their soulmates on their very skin, they know not the good, but the bad though they find each other by seeing their faults on another’s skin.Andromeda didn't leave her family after Hogwarts; she couldn't. She could not bear the thought. She had sisters, a nephew, and a life.The day she met Severus Snape, though she hoped he was different, it turns out he's just as dark as the rest of them.If your soulmate is a monster, what does that make you?
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy, Severus Snape/Andromeda Black
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15
Collections: Hermione's Nook RarePair Soulmate Fest





	1. Spoiled And Quick To Anger

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to xxDustNight88 for reading this over, for the fest chat for listening to my ramblings, and for the group as a whole.
> 
> But, most of all to those who give this odd pairing a chance.

”For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” Virginia Wolf

”If you avoid conflict to keep the peace, you start a war inside yourself.”

  
  


Andromeda Black hated these parties, and she hated how fake everyone at them behaved. They pretended they had no faults. They acted as if they were better than everyone outside of these walls. They weren't, though, not a single one of them. Andy admitted it; she wasn't as brave as Sirius. Though she had considered leaving her family after she graduated Hogwarts, she could not. She loved them far too much to do such a thing. Her sisters, her little cousin Regulus but most of all, her nephew Draco. 

Maybe it made her a horrible person to turn a blind eye to the actions of her extended family, but Andromeda was a Black and nothing, not anything could change that. She was a Slytherin. They were the house of keeping yourself alive— not the house of dying for a worthless cause— she left that to Sirius.

Andromeda washed her hands in the bathroom sink. On her wrist in sharp black ink was “quick to anger.” She wondered if her soulmate was a Gryffindor, that would serve her right, wouldn't it? She would then be the black sheep of her sisters. She would become then another blood traitor then; another Sirius.

Narcissa begged her last night as they drank tea past midnight, ”Don’t be another Sirius, Andy. I don't know if I could survive the loss of another family member.”

She said to her sister, ”Cissa, you aren't going to lose me, I swear it.”

Narcissa said her beautiful face ashen, ”Bella is insane, Andy, she’s never been right not after the accident. But, this Tom person has her talking downright insanity. The Auror Department fired her. I am scared of what she's becoming. Mother is dead, Regulus disappeared. Now you are all I have left besides Draco and Lucius. We have to stand together. Or we will be washed away as if our family never existed at all.”

Andromeda turned off the faucet and smoothed her green party dress. It was time to face the music, time to bump elbows with the purebloods. It was time to pretend she didn't want to take a knife and shove it straight into Tom Riddle’s back. He was making Bella into a monster, and he was enjoying it.

She greeted her brother in law, Lucius. His pale features made him look like an angel, but he was no angel. Andy had heard whispers of this group called the Death Eaters, and young pureblood men were joining it in droves. The hints of the undertones we're that Lucius was one of them.

Andromeda took the glass of wine from Narcissa and then walked out on the balcony. She needed a cigarette; she needed to breathe. It was then that she saw him. Severus Snape. His long, black hair was hanging in his pale face. What was he doing at a party? He was reading. Some people would have laughed at him, but it intrigued her. 

He wore black head to toe. While Lucius wore clothing to show off, Severus’s seemed downright practical. It wasn't if the garments were poorly made, no his robes were well-tailored to his long and lean frame, but unlike the purebloods, he was not a Peacock. He was not showing off for the sake of showing off. It made him feel like a breath of fresh air, and it made him attractive. Though if pressed about it, Andy would deny it. 

Severus marked his page, then shut his book and set it aside. He said, ”I never thought I would see the day a Black sister smoking muggle cigarettes.”

Andy felt her face heat up, and she was likely a bright shade of red, she realized at that moment she had not done much beyond pulling out her pack of cigarettes. ”Well, Snape, if you ask anyone, I am a terrible example of a Black sister.”

He made a noise of surprise at her honesty, ”It’s Prince actually, I have taken on my mother’s family name with the help of Lucius. I owe him a lot for that, it's not much, but unless you haven't had a name of value, you might not understand.”

Andy lit her cigarette and said to him, ”Why isn't the name Snape of value? What makes it and Prince so different?”

Severus let out a strangled sounding huff, ”Because it’s Muggle, that’s why.”

”And what makes being a muggle so wrong? What provokes us to assume that we are better than them? They just like us are human.”

He laughed his tone was not filled with joy but a mocking angry presence to it, as if she had just told him the sky was purple. ”Says the woman from the family whose crest always proclaims pure. Do you know pure means, Andromeda? It means right, excellent, and correct.”

She said to him sharply, ”And it is wrong.”

Severus stood looming over her, like some large creature of the night. But she does not pull away from him. He is no fool, and he wouldn't dare lay a hand on her. He's Lucius’s lapdog from the rumors she has heard. “Says the girl who has benefitted her whole life from the fact she's from one of the good wizarding families.”

She reached for his hand and said, “And yet it has not saved my family from suffering. Regulus has left, Merlin knows where, my mother is dead, my sister is insane, and my generation will be the last in Black by name.”

That is when she sees it, the glaring harsh black letters on his wrist. It stood out sharply against his moon toned skin, spoiled. She was no fool; she was spoiled. She tried her best not to be, but with her childhood, it wasn’t unexpected for her to at least be a tiny bit spoiled. Andromeda pushed up her cuff on her left wrist, to show him. To show him where it said on her own that said quick to anger. If she could see spoiled, then he could see quick to anger.

Andy said to him, “Nowhere, Severus Snape Prince, does it say on my body mudblood, nor blood traitor, or killer or monster or freak. There are many words. Sullen, self-loathing, obsessive, dangerous, prideful, a lust for power, jealousy, prejudice, and cruelty. But, you know what? I am sure you find a lot of the same on your own body. I am a Slytherin, after all.”

“Lucius is going to kill me,” muttered Severus.

*************************

Lucius did want to kill Severus, but Andromeda knew her brother in law would not. The man was many things, but he was no fool. He knew to destroy someone’s soulmate would lead to nothing more than a life of suffering. But her father, on the other hand, Cygnus did not care for his daughter’s plight. He took the motto always pure to heart.

They sat at the dining room table in Grimmauld place, Orion, her uncle, sat at the head of the table. He looked far older than his age of forty-six Sirius was disowned, Regulus was gone. The man’s wife, her aunt, suffered from the typical madness that plagued their family. Walburga had the same air about her that Bellatrix had; that of insanity. Next was her father, Cygnus, and he was forty-two. His face was rigid, his bright blue eyes like daggers, he was not snarling, but he was very close to doing so. 

Her sister, Narcissa, sat on one side of her, on the other was Severus. Narcissa had pale blonde hair, eyes that were nearly a pale blue-violet. Narcissa was the odd one of Black sisters, her name not being a celestial name, her coloring, and even her coolness of temperament. Her sister was like ice; the Blacks as a family were far more like fires. Sometimes she wondered if those who dared to get close to the members of the family were just fuel to the fire that was doomed to be just kindling for the all-consuming flames that were consuming the family.

Next was Lucius, who had a rather good impression of Lucifer Morningstar. He was like the men who surround him as if he wanted her Andromeda’s, very heart on a platter. Or at least to remind her of the wrong she had done. To tell her of how fate, her fate was damning her family to turn over a new leaf. 

They Severus and Andromeda were not like Romeo and Juliet, and they were like the Lovings. Doomed not because their families were feuding, but doomed to unhappiness all the same. Doomed by a social construction of race, one magical and the other muggle. But race all the same. 

Orion the head of the family, though now he cleared his throat and spoke. “We must deal with Andromeda’s soulbond does to this family. Severus is of good stock on his mother’s side. Thanks to Lucius, he is now head of the Prince family. But his father, however, was a muggle. Our options are clear, disownment for her, or we lie. His mother is dead. 

We can spread a rumor he’s the son Sorin Lestrange, he didn't have any children before his death. Though he's a little too old, which plays in our favor as to why she hid it and married the muggle. He, Severus, understands the fallacy of his mother’s actions. Beyond that, the mark clears all stains. Without children, our family is doomed to fade away like other great families. Sirius is a traitor, and Regulus has disappeared, Narcissa cannot have more children.”

He did not speak of Bellatrix; not even her uncle pushed her to have a child. She had not a drop of motherly care in her body. She would leave her children to fight, and she would sacrifice them. She would strangle them in their cradle if they dared to so much as a whimper. 

Her father cried out, ”I want proof! I want proof he carries the mark of our Lord.”

Andromeda thought to herself I am tied to a monster, a demon on earth, a killer. She stared wide, fearful eyes as her soulmate bared his left forearm to their companions. Clear as day, and it was the serpent and skull, so the rumors were true. The whispers and rumors. She felt cold shivers run up her spine, and she felt her stomach bubble, she couldn't run away. She couldn't hide. She was a deer staring at a hunter. She was a fallen Queen knowing the sword was coming to strike off her head.

Andromeda knew at that moment she was destined for hell. She was to sleep with and love a killer or to run and feel as if her very soul was being torn to shreds. There was a boot to her back, crushing her very face into the ground. Merlin, damn it all to bloody hell.

She could not speak; she could not cry out; all she could do was nod. She was trapped like a mouse cornered by a snake. Andromeda was no hero; she spoke, ”I accept the conditions.”

With those words, she sealed her fate and that of any children she may have. She was to marry a monster pretending to be a man. 

**************************

It was past midnight when Severus came home, and he said nothing to Andromeda as he chucked his boots off she heard them hit the far wall with a rather loud clunk. It echoed in her ears he was always like this when he came home from raids, too enthralled by what had done to dare to be quiet. He did not care if he woke her or the baby.

Her husband had an unspeakable bloodlust, though it was far more refined than that of her sister or that of the Lestrange brothers. He would not butcher them as if he was a deranged monster. Severus liked to toy with his victims to make them believe that they had a chance at escape, then he would go in for a clean kill as he thought they were with a friend, not a foe. A monster in white fancy gloves was still a monster all the same.

At least he did not light the lamp as he did a few days ago. He placed the bone mask on its proper hook, and his robes folded neatly on the armchair in the corner. They would wait there for her to clean them tomorrow. They were far too poor to have house-elves. Narcissa had offered them one, but ever prideful Severus had refused. She was a good wife like her mother before her, and good wives did not go against their husbands. 

Severus climbed into bed with her; his long fingers made quick work of the ties of her nightdress. His lips were on her neck. He nipped at the pale skin. Severus whispered, ”I dreamed of coming home to you, Andy. I want to be inside of you.”

Andromeda threw her nightdress onto the wooden floor; Severus had not even bothered to put on sleep clothes. Likely knowing that though it was late when he came home, his wife was powerless to the lure of her lust. 

Andy hated so much about Sev; she detested his lust for power, the darkness of his heart. But, he was her soulmate, the love of her life. She could tell him practically anything; he loved to learn, to debate, she was attracted to him; he was gentle, loving. They spent evenings curled up together on their couch by the fire reading. He adored their daughter Lyra, though she did admit his habit of just holding the baby and staring at her was slightly unusual. 

But, she also knew about his childhood. His absent mother, his abusive father. The muggle brute who sheared into his son’s mind that his magic made him a freak and monster. Maybe he did such a thing because of his haunting memories, or perhaps it was that he was shocked that their daughter was perfect in every way, at least to her parents. 

He had recently brought her home a cat, knowing that she missed Leah. The tabby that her mother had given her as a child, but passed in her last year of Hogwarts. 

Edith, the small white long-haired cat, kept her company far more than their daughter did. Lyra was barely three months old, and there was only so much spit up she could clean up before she craved the company of humans. But, humans, we're hard to come by Narcissa visited as much as she could. Severus begged her not to allow Bellatrix near their daughter, but she knew quite well what the man feared. 

Her husband worried the same thing as she did about her eldest sister. They feared that Bellatrix would ignore their father’s declaration when it came to Severus and their children. They were concerned that she would trim the Black of their lessor than a pure branch. Daughter of a death eater or not. Her niece or not. 

Andromeda could not help but whine as Severus entered her. She felt whole at that moment. As complete as she had ever been. Their bodies met each other; she clung to him. He tangled his hand in her curls, and her nails tried to find purchase on his back. Seconds, minutes, it could have been hours, but Andromeda knew it was not. His fingers found her clit; she was too close too soon. 

Andromeda saw it then what she was never supposed to see. Severus’s mind and hers brushed. She saw her, Evans, a muggleborn in his year, a wand pointed at Severus’s chest. He snarled at the woman run. Terror filled the woman’s face. Fear of her death left the woman frozen in fear in the falling snow. 

Her husband shouted again, this time louder, ”Run, run before they see you! I don't want to kill you.”

”Severus,” the woman cried. 

”Run, unless you want to die by their hands, RUN!”

The Gryffindor shouted, ”You don't have to do this; you are not a monster.”

”RUN, for the love of Merlin, run. I will not die for you, Evans, but I will not kill you.”

He raised his wand with a curse on his pale, thin lips, and the woman finally turned on her heels and ran down the alley. 

Andromeda was out his mind like lightning had struck between them. 

Severus did not finish, and neither did she. He turned away from her. But, within seconds, his wand was pressed against her neck. The ebony-wood dug into her skin. 

He snarled, ”You saw nothing! Do you hear me? Unless you want to sign both our death warrants.”

”Severus, I... Wouldn't.”

”Do you want our daughter to be an orphan?”

He leaned farther over her, his black eyes boring into hers. Severus was no wolf in sheep’s clothing; this wolf did not bother to disguise himself. He yelled, ”Swear that you will never speak of this, not to anyone who would use it to harm us.”

Andromeda cried, ”I swear it, I swear it on our daughter’s life. I swear it on Narcissa’s. I swear it on my own!”

”Good because if you do not, Lyra and we are as good as dead.”

Andromeda reached for him as she always would. He pulled away. She could barely make out on the back of his shoulder careless; it stood out starkly against the scars that marred his pale back. 

Prideful was on his forearm; selfish was on his right hip. Envy marred his right inner thigh. She loved to kiss that one. Vengeance was on the top of his left foot. Lust was on his belly. That one made her laugh; she regularly joked that she hoped that one never disappeared. 

She was a hot-blooded woman with a pulse. Anyone would want her husband. Severus always laughed at that, saying only you, Andy, only you. Greedy on his right shoulder, and he had a matching quick to anger. But, the spoiled that was the one she hated the most, but also the most treasured. It was on his left wrist. That was what had led them to each other. 

Andy thought to herself there were no such things as good and bad people, there were just people who did good and bad things.

She asked him softly, desperately, not trying to trigger his anger, ”You don't love her, Evans, do you?”

Severus turned to face her, calculating sharp black eyes filled with shock. ”Andy, the only people I have ever loved, are you and Lyra. I will love the rest of our children. No one else.”

”Why did you let her go then?”

”I knew Evans, Lily, when I was a child. She lived near me. She was my first friend, and for many years, my only.”

She asked him, ”So a muggleborn was good enough to be your friend?”

”Andy... Please do not start with this; it is far too late for such things.”

Andromeda said to Severus, ”I will drop it if you answer one question, why did you let her go?”

He turned away from her, the sound of his feet hitting the wooden floor. Severus turned to her and confessed, ”Because she didn't deserve to die. Because I do not know why, Andy. Because long ago she was my friend. Because I wouldn't be able to look in the mirror if I did so, because...I...Am...Not...A...Monster. Because she has a son Draco’s age. 

But, Andy if that does not stay between you, me and her all three of us and Lyra are doomed. Maybe even her own son as well. Tell no one, Andy. And I will never do it again. Her life is not worth yours, mine and surely not our daughter’s.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Careless And The Devil Himself

”Not all monsters look like monsters; some wear pretty faces.”

”Some monsters are born, and some are made.”

  
  


Andromeda did not want to be here, she hated these parties, but the wife of a death eater must attend these gatherings. She had to be a good little wife and let herself be paraded around as if she was a prize to be won. Not that Severus saw her like that, but he too had to put on an act. The main event, however, no woman besides Bellatrix would attend. They must have their ”sweet souls” scarred. More like Narcissa didn't want to clean muggle blood off her pretty dress. 

Lyra was in what had once been Draco’s playpen in the parlor. The white-blond boy kept bringing his young cousin toys, not understanding the baby was far too small to be able to play with him. He quickly became bored with her and left the room to play with his toy broom. 

Severus chatted rather happily with his classmate Avery, Narcissa played the grand piano. Her fingers dancing over the keys. entrancing all those present as if it were a siren’s song, or at least that is what it seemed. Andromeda heard it before she saw it. Her sister, her once long ago when they were just children, her favorite sister, held her baby, her precious daughter in her arms. 

Bellatrix, she was no longer Bella, the sweet innocent, gentle, loving child she once was. Now she was a monster, a demon, a she-wolf. A mockery of all that she once was and should have been. She was the woman with the wild, insane eyes and the laugh that sent chills to your bones and made you want never to let your children within a hundred yards near her. She had Lyra in her arms; it should have been a tender moment for an aunt and her niece, but they were the Blacks, not the Weasleys. They could have no such thing.

The woman sang in a softly sweet, downright sing-song voice, ”What a pretty little mudblood you are, what a pretty little mudblood. Grandpa used to say blast them off the tree my darling, one drop of dirty blood and off of the tree, they go. My daddy and uncle have grown soft, but I have not become weak. Your daddy is the son of a muggle; you are a mudblood, the granddaughter, a creature not even worthy of being called human. But soon, a dead mudblood you shall be.”

The three of the four members of her family charged at Bellatrix. Andromeda ripped her daughter from her sister's arms. Lucius pulled the mother and daughter away. Holding her, out of the corner of her eye, she watched Narcissa clutch Draco tightly; the small child hid his face in his mother’s hair. He was only a toddler! He might remember such horror, Lyra would not, though Andy would never forget it either. 

She watched as her husband pinned her sister against the wall. Severus was as calm as he could be as if he was talking about the weather. “I could spell your brain directly from your skull, Bellatrix. You would be dead before your body hit the floor. I could feed you a potion that would make your organs boil in your very carcass. I could curse you with a thousand cuts, and I am the only one who knows the counter curse. You would bleed from every pore. I will not dare to utter the words to save your waste of existence. Or I could do it the muggle way as you seem to believe I am and rip your throat out. 

What shall it be, Bella? What shall it be? If you ever lay a single wretched finger on my daughter again, I shall do it all at the same time. The  _ Cruciatus  _ will seem like child’s play. A gift as they say. The last seconds of your reality shall be nothing but utter torture, and I dear sister shall enjoy every single second of it. And I will happily greet in the fires of hell we are all damned to.”

Bellatrix’s pale, blue-grey eyes bulged out of their sockets, her face was a bright shade of red, her mouth was open, her nostrils flared, and she was ever so slightly shaking. 

Boots hit the solid oak floors. Andromeda had only met Voldemort a few times; she did her best to avoid the man. She turned to face him. He wore long, sweeping wool robes. His skin was like a pale carved stone; his hair was a dark, nearly chocolate brown, wavy, and thin, he had a reptilian air about him. His very presence made the room feel colder. He stole the attention of all in the place. Even Draco stared openly at the man. 

He said with a low, quiet tone, but with an intense air of authority. ”Severus, put Bellatrix down, please. Aren't we all friends after all?” The man who was once Tom Riddle laughed.

Severus loosened but did not remove his grip. ”She tried to kill my daughter.” His air of deranged serenity is gone; his whole body shakes in a pure dangerous, murderous rage.

Voldemort said to him, ”Son, allow me to punish her transgression; is it not my job as your leader to reward and punish you?”

Her husband nodded and let go of her sister. The woman fell to the floor, and a hidden silver dagger clattered next to her. The weapon she intended to kill her daughter with thought Andromeda. Severus walked over to her. He pulled her close and shielded their daughter between them. 

She said to him, ”We should leave, Sev.”

Voldemort said to her, ”Andromeda you should stay, I want to make sure the punishment fits your sister’s crime. A mother is like a viper to protect her children, isn't she? And you are a Slytherin; therefore. that makes you the greatest of serpents, doesn't it?” His tone left no room to question it; they would be staying. She would have to watch her sister’s torture just as she had to when her father took the actions made her sister this way.

Severus pulled her to a large armchair he sat down then pulled both Andy and Lyra into his lap. His one hand went to their daughter and the other to Andy’s hip. Narcissa sat on the couch, her young son buried in her hair. She was desperately trying to shield him from the horror that was to come. Lucius sat next to her. His face was like stone, though that was a mask for pure utter horror that laid beneath the surface. 

Andromeda knew what he was thinking; she did not have to read his mind to know it. The same as Narcissa’s and even Severus himself, she would bet. What the fuck did I get myself into? Should I run? Should I stay? How best am I to protect those I love and those who love me? Merlin, what damned creature have I aligned myself with? Or that is at least what she thought. 

Bella crawled over to the Dark Lord like a child, and maybe, in some ways, she still was. She mostly behaved like a teenager who was not getting their way. 

Tom said, ”Now my sweet, Bella, I know your bloodlust is strong, but that child is of two great dying families. She is needed for when we destroy those with far filthier blood than she. It will be a glorious day when she takes my mark. Lyra is our future, just like little Draco.  _ Crucio _ .”

Bellatrix howled, her eyes rolled back in her head, and then finally she coughed up blood. Seconds, minutes, or maybe it was hours, of silence, of total utter silence beyond the sounds of Bellatrix’s whimpers. 

Voldemort stared at Andromeda, his mud-brown eyes into her blue, ”Lady Prince, was she thoroughly punished?” 

”Yes, ” she muttered. ”She has been punished, but I doubt that she will ever truly understand what she did. For, she is not a mother.”

He asked, ”Should she become a mother?”

”No, she does not understand how properly to raise a child.”

”I agree; she is a far better fighter than a caretaker. You do have to bring your daughter to future meetings, Prince, and Lucius will give you one of his house-elves.”

Severus said nothing, he dared not to go against the dark lord. 

Lucius called for a House-Elf named Dobby; the creature had large blue eyes, large floppy ears, an innocent expression, he was quite young, and he wore a dirty pillowcase. The man said to the elf, ”Severus and Andromeda Prince are your new master and mistress Dobby. You will follow their every order and be loyal to them. You will be their elf for the rest of their life or yours, whichever ends first.”

The small creature nodded, his ears flapping in the air like little grey wings. He said, ”Happy to serve you, new masters.” Then he bowed politely to them. 

Lucius said, ”He is a good elf, but he has a spirit most lack, but with the time, you could beat it out of him.”

Voldemort said, ”Go home now, Severus and Andromeda.”

Neither waited for him to change his mind. They left the parlor as if something was chasing them, though their new elf was the only thing on their heels. Severus helped Andromeda into her fur-lined cloak, the feeling of the fox fur seemed to snap her out of her trance. He pulled on his cloak and tucked his mask under his arm. 

Andromeda wrapped her baby in her thick blanket, she just barely heard Severus say, ”Andy, can you hand me Lyra? You are shaking, and I am worried that you are going to drop her.”

She clutched her daughter tighter, terrified that her sister would come back, come back to try again. 

His fingers tangled into her curls, ”My love, no one is going to hurt our daughter, as long as I live.”

She cried, ”I can't; I can't.” Andromeda did not know what her bloody problem was. She couldn't catch her breath. She was so dizzy; her vision started to cloud. Andromeda wanted so desperately to run, to flee from the manor that was once a safe place for her. But, now, it was just a parody of what it once was. Andromeda couldn't breathe, and then it was as if a black sheet fell quickly over her vision. 

Her last thought was to catch her, catch and let me fall. Protect her, protect from harm, from all sides that wish to do her harm.

************************

Andromeda woke up on the old sofa in their small living room. All the candles were lit. She tried to sit up and fell back. She was far too dizzy to sit up. Her head felt like it might float off her shoulders. 

Severus said, ”Rest, Andy, you took a bad fall. I am sorry I did not catch you. I was so surprised.”

She opened and closed her mouth; it felt as if it was full of mothballs. ”Is Lyra okay? Is she safe?”

”I caught her; you nearly tossed her at me, mind you, as you fell. She's sleeping now, though the elf has taken up residence in her room. I think we can trust him...”

She muttered, ”We must do the blood ritual to tie him to the family, our family. He's loyal to the Malfoys, now. We need him to be loyal to us. And that only comes from blood magic.”

He stood over her and held a potion vial to her lips. Some would call her stupid not to question what he was giving her. But, she trusted him, and he believed her, or at least she hoped he did. He said softly, ”To help your headache.”

It did help; the room was no longer spinning, but her eyelids felt heavy; she would just shut her eyes for a few moments.

******************************

Andromeda awoke with Severus’s arms around her. The night sleep had done her quite a bit of good. She wiggled out from under her husband’s heavy arm. He had even put socks on her feet, she thought. She pulled on her navy blue dressing gown and went to make breakfast. Andy made rather quick work of the eggs and bacon. She heard feet hit the wood floor. 

She assumed it was Severus, ”Love breakfast should be ready soon.”

”Mistress, I can finish breakfast if you prefer.” The creature's voice was high but did not crack. 

”Dobby, I am nearly finished. I forgot that you were here.”

”Dobby will punish himself, Mistress.” Then the creature went to place his hands on the hot stove. Her face filled with horror, she grabbed the elf by an ear and dragged him back. 

She shouted at the creature, ”No! You will not punish yourself in such a way in this house! I do not care what my sister taught you. You will not behave in such a manner in my home! My child will not see you act in such a way.”

Dobby asked her with wide blue eyes, ”How should I punish myself, mistress?”

“Do not punish yourself! Dobby, you did nothing wrong.”

Lyra started to cry in her crib, and breakfast was smoking and burnt to a crisp. Andy silently spelled it straight into the bin. 

”Dobby, please make breakfast for myself and Severus?”

”Yes, Mistress, Dobby is happy too!”

She went to her baby, Lyra was six months old now, time seemed to fly when it came to her daughter. Andy wanted to stop the clocks. At this age, at this size, her daughter was far easier to protect. As Lyra grew, it would be a very different story. The Dark Lord was already licking his lips at the idea of marking her child, of making her into a servant, taking away in all senses of the words her free will. Severus’s mark trapped him in what he could do to protect their daughter, but Andy, she was not a death eater. 

Her mental walls were not perfect, but Severus could teach her to make them better. She could buy them a plan B, an escape route. A chance if the Dark Lord was ever defeated an opportunity to not rot in a prison cell. To not leave her daughter with parents in the care of distant relatives, or worse her grandfather, Cygnus. 

He had no love for his grandchild and would, without thought, turn her into another Bellatrix. Possibly even taking pleasure in such an action. 

Andromeda knew what she needed to do. She needed to speak to her cousin, Sirius. He was an order member, after all. They what seemed like a lifetime ago we're close. She could not dare to voice her plans to Severus. He might try to stop her, or worse, knowing her plans could get him killed. She had the perfect information to buy Sirius’s help. There was a rat in the order, and she knew who he was. 

Peter Pettigrew.

Andromeda pushed such thoughts out of her mind as she fed her baby in the rocking chair. She could hear Severus starting to stir in the other room.

What did her mother always say? Only give if what you get is better than what you gave.

Severus stuck his head into the nursery, ”Why is the house-elf making breakfast?”

”Because that's part of the reason to have a house-elf is they do things like that, didn't your mother’s family have them?”

He shook his head and muttered, “My grandfather was quite mad, not unlike your father, he was paranoid to the point of insanity. He called house elves liars, thieves, and betrayers. When he became the head of the family, he burned all of them alive.”

She asked him a question that had always seemed to hang in the air around her, that had haunted her thoughts, ”Do you think madness is hereditary? Do you believe there is no hope for Lyra?”

Her daughter had finished nursing and had fallen back to sleep. Her finger brushed the baby’s cheek after Severus took her from her to place back in her crib. 

”I don't know if it is or isn't, Andy. We both could be as mad as hatters, but do crazy people even know that they are insane? My mother surely did not realize she was. Does your father? My grandfather would ramble on about things that made no sense. The Aurors were watching him; they wanted to steal his home, and yet he let it rot around him. He tried to marry my mother off to Soren Lestrange for Merlin’s sake, a man twice her age. If what we know to be correct, true madness, the madness of a family is in our very blood, just like magic.”

Dobby then popped into the room and said, “Master and mistress breakfast is ready!” 

Severus groaned, “Why couldn’t he walk in the bloody room? It is what twenty feet At Most?”

She laughed soundly, finally finding something in what felt like forever funny, ”Husband of mine, because he is a house-elf, and that is what house-elves do best, pop around like they are some form living popcorn.”

***********************

Andromeda sent the letter to Sirius about meeting with her by owl while she knew he was at work. She was terrified of the idea that someone would find out that she had sent it or what was in it. Would her cousin turn her in, not bother to hear her out? There was nothing in the letter to convict her of a crime, nor had she committed any crime, but she was married to a man who had. She dared not to speculate all the blood that had stained her husband’s hands. She dared not to question his actions, her dreams were already haunted by enough horrors.

He was a monster, and she loved him more than her very life, but because she did, did that make her a monster as well? He was her soulmate, the person she was perfect for, but if his soul was as black as a raven’s wing. Did that mean hers was too? Was she also waiting for the right situation to turn her into a killer?

Andy dared not to dwell on too long, for fear of what she may discover about herself. 

If she went through with it and met Sirius, would she one day have to take her daughter to visit her father behind prison cell bars? Or worse would Lyra grow without a father? Would Lucius betray them to save his skin? Malfoys were as untouchable as the ice that their coloring reminded you of them. They were not like her brother-in-law. They were not like the Blacks; no matter what foolish lies her father spun, Severus was the son of a muggle, an Irish Traveler, a man who drank his paychecks away. 

They had nothing to amount to any defense that was worth a bloody damn. 

But, if she did nothing, her daughter would have her father, but when she reached of age or close, she would be marked. She would grow to become a Bellatrix. She would grow to become a monster. 

She walks towards the muggle park where she was meeting Sirius. It was early evening the sun had just set. Her cloak head was over her head. If a muggle saw her, they would think she was strange, but she had no fear of muggle eyes. Witches and wizards were far more at risk if they saw her meeting her cousin.

Sirius did not hide. He did not wear a heavy cloak if she hadn't known him. She might mistake him for a muggle, but she had known the man for nearly all of her life, and he, all of his. He shouted his tone jolly just as always, “Andy, my favorite cousin, well before you went and shacked up with Snivellus.”

She snarled, “He’s my soulmate! I don’t even know why I asked to meet you; you haven't learned anything still the stupid schoolboy you always were.”

He held up his hands to show his innocence. ”Cousin, I want to help you; it's nice to see you are leaving Snape.”

”I am not leaving him! This meeting is not about me leaving him.”

“But... He’s a death eater, why would you meet with an Auror if you didn’t want to leave him? Or am I missing something? If he wants to talk, I can set up a meeting with my boss.”

“You are missing everything, Sirius, just as you always do. I am here to help you, but for it, I want a promise my husband will have your word we helped you when this war ends — someone to stand up for us. House arrest or those bracelets some people spread rumors about.”

Sirius laughed, ”And why in the world would I do that, cousin? You're just as bad as my brother; you're marked, or at least married to a death eater. You picked the wrong side, and so did he. So, unless you and he want to come clean, I will do not a damn thing for you — family or not. Thanks to mother, I am no longer a Black, so Andromeda Snape I owe you nothing.”

He started to turn away, and she shouted, ”Regulus is dead... Or at least I think so, and the Dark Lord wants to mark Lyra when she comes of age. I will spy for the order, I also know of a traitor in the order. I will tell you who he is.”

”Who? Who Is It?! Who?”

”Peter. Peter Petigrew!”

His hand is around her throat, cutting off the breath in her lungs. Is this how Bellatrix felt? She did not believe Severus when he told her that her cousin, her first friend, had tried to kill him, pranks of course, but murder? No. Maybe there was some truth to that. His blue eyes were like some deranged demon. Monsters don't always look like monsters. But, it also takes a monster to kill them, because even monsters were once children. 

She tried to pry his fingers off her throat. 

As if Sirius realized what he was doing, he let her go. Andromeda couldn't breathe; she coughed up spit onto the dead grass. 

”Prove it, prove it, and then I might believe you.”

She breathlessly said, ”He turns into a small brown rat.”

”I have known him since I was eleven years old; he's one of my best friends.”

Andromeda said, ”I heard Lucius talking about their new recruit, an order member, a friend of the Potters, a member of Sirius’s gang. That his name was Peter. That he was a worthless thing, but he had information, and he could spy without being seen.”

”I will speak to Dumbledore about you meeting with him. We decide what we want to do. But, give me a reason I should trust you and why Snape should rot for his crimes?”

She said with clear conviction, ”He let Lily Potter live.”

Sirius said, ”So she was right; it was him.”

”It was.”

He said, ”You need to convince your husband to switch sides, and then he might get off with less than he deserves as punishment. But, cousin, think of what your husband does to people, like Lily, as you clean his robes from the blood that stains them. Soulmate or not. He's the half-blood who hates his own kind. Do you really want someone like that around your daughter? I will owl you when I hear from Dumbledore.”

He held out his hand for her to shake it, that is when she sees the seared grey word on his palm. Careless. The only way she would be able to see it is that his soulmate is dead. What happened to them? And is their death what changed her Sirius into this thing that pretended to be him? 

Andromeda had to get home quickly, Severus would be home from work soon, and she wanted him not to worry about her.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	3. Lust And The Outside World

”Stay close to people who feel like sunlight.”

”He calms my chaos, and I fuel his fire. We are a match made between heaven and hell”. Nicole Lyons

  
  


Parties hadn't always been something she dreaded. Andromeda remembered the time when Sirius Black was not her enemy, but her best friend. It was long before they had separated by their sorting, stuck in rival houses. She remembered chasing him around the halls of her home; she remembered the mischievous look in his blue-grey eyes as teased her in the way only a cousin could. 

Andy remembered his funny comments about her party dresses. Parties were not so horrible with Sirius around—they were not only tolerable—but he made them fun. She had hoped her cousin would remember the parties that decorated their childhoods like patches on a quilt. She hoped he would remember the love he once felt for her, the trusted position she had once held in his heart, but after their meeting, she wouldn't count on it. Her cousin had made new friends on the train to Hogwarts all those years ago, friends who made the thickness of blood seem downright silly. Wasn't the quote something about the bloodshed in battle is thicker than the water of the womb? 

So in a way, he was following that quote to a T, whether Andromeda wanted to admit it or not they were in a battle. The cuts that appeared semi-regularly on her husband’s body attested to that. Andromeda remembered the time her husband had stumbled in the door bleeding heavily from his left arm; it looked as if someone had tried to remove the limb with a curse.

He snarled, ”Get me the first aid kit I set up, woman.”

Severus never talked like that. She had desperately tried to insist that he needed to go to St Mungos. It fell on deaf ears, ”Yeah, Andy, and after I should walk straight into the ministry and shout, I am a death eater arrest me!”

”And bleeding to death at our dining room table, Severus Tobias Prince is so much bloody better! What should I tell our daughter when she asks about you? Her father died because he was far too stupid to get the treatment he needed, and died right over there?”

His black eyes went bright, and one of his rare smiles graced his pale, nearly now bloodless lips. ”We are having a girl?”

”Yes, the healer told me this morning, now off with the robes before I cut them off of you.”

Severus bared his pale bleeding arm for her. He should be howling in pain; he should be pleading with her to make it better. The only sign of that he wasn't fine was the fact his face was tight and body rigid. That made this situation far scarier. 

She said, ”I am going to firecall Lucius!”

Lucius was the reason she still had her husband; he knew a healer who, for the right amount of money, would ignore the dark mark that marred her husband’s arm. The older woman was no-nonsense, gruffed faced and easily looked as if she was over a hundred. Maybe she was. She was a witch, after all. 

Andy asked him weeks later who had done that to him? His answer had been Potter, and I think he knew it was me. 

She wondered to herself, how could the Auror of known?

As if she had voiced it, Severus said, “Because a long time we had been in close contact, he saved me from Lupin, the wolf and your cousin. They tried to kill me. Why I don't know, but I now owe Potter a life debt.”

At that moment, in that second, Andromeda had decided maybe it was a good thing Sirius was no longer her friend, she had a daughter to think of. If the words her husband spoke were factual.

************************* 

Andromeda waited for Sirius’s letter to come with both fear and anticipation. What it say? Would the order help her? More likely, would Dumbledore help her? The order was Dumbledore, and he was the order. It had taken three weeks for Sirius’s eagle owl to fly through her opened window. She opened the letter and read it. The owl nipped at her fingers. 

Andy muttered, ”I have nothing for you, whatever your name is.”

The letter had two simple sentences on it ”Rat has been dealt with, and the Phoenix has agreed to meet with you. Meet me at the park this Thursday.”

Andromeda sighed then burned the letter with magic, leaving no trace of it. She wrote a simple note, ”I will be there.”

The owl flew out of the window and back to his master. Severus had refused to use blood magic to tie the house-elf to himself; he still felt uncomfortable by the idea of the creature. So she did, part of her thought it was better how it turned out because of the fact that the elf would be first and foremost loyal to her. Which meant if things went as planned with this meeting, then she would need the elf. She would need something she could trust, and there was nothing more than house-elf blood bonded to you.

Speaking of which she called for Dobby, who came quickly to her with a pop, ”Mistress, you want dinner made?”

”Yes, and my husband’s favorite.”

He squeaked, ”Master Severus loves roast and potatoes? He always asks for seconds of the roast.”

She nodded her head, and the creature went off to get to work.

Andromeda stretched her joints popping as she did so. She wanted to have a nice dinner with Severus, maybe shower with him and then go to bed. They were young, no matter how old she sometimes felt. Young couples were allowed to enjoy their life, drink a little too much, to fuck, to live this some form of a wild experience. 

Sometimes she thought it was because of their daughter. Sometimes she thought it was because of how much he worked. The truth was because of what her husband did as a side job of sorts. Honestly, Andromeda thought, she needed to stop lying to herself. Her husband had joined a cult or, worse, a terrorist group. A cult she was an unmarked member of. 

Andromeda was not, in fact, a death eater herself. But, she may as well be. How in Merlin’s name did she end up here? This was not how her life was supposed to be. This was not the life she dreamed of. This was not the life she sat there and talked to her sisters about having. Never in all her years of her life did she think that she would one day betray her soulmate. No matter whether it was right or wrong, that is what she was doing. 

There was something that they called people like her, a Judas. In the muggle and wizarding world, she was one of the worst. She was the woman mothers beseeched that their sons did not end up with. 

Andromeda did not think she would be able to eat at dinner; her stomach felt as if it was an overflowing cauldron ready to explode. But, she had no one, not anyone else, to blame for why. It was her fault. Hers. She was the strange one, the different one. Her parents had both thought the dark lord was good. Her cousin Regulus had been marked at sixteen for Merlin’s sake. Narcissa saw nothing wrong with Lucius’s actions. 

What was in her that made her different? What was in her that made her less like Bellatrix and more like Sirius? So many other mothers would be happy to hear the dark lord wanted to mark their child. Yet here she was having sent a letter that blunted stated she wanted to betray her family, her husband, her very existence as a pureblood Slytherin witch. 

Maybe it was not Bella who was insane, but she, Andy thought, should she take it all back? Not meet with Dumbledore? Ignore Sirius’s letters? Forget it all ever had happened? 

Maybe she—in theory, should—but Andromeda would not. Not with Lyra’s freedom at stake.

Andromeda felt her husband’s cold fingers on her shoulder. He said into her ear, ”Sickle for your thoughts?”

”I love you, Severus, every single part of you. The good, the bad, and the pieces you dare not to show. Never forget that.”

He said, ”I know that Andy, I have always known that. And I love you. I will always love you. I think you could do or say anything and I would love you. We are soulmates, time and space will bring us together again each lifetime we shall try to find one another. Now let's have dinner that creature you swear I should trust made.”

**************************

Her hands were tied to the headboard; her eyes took the details of him in the dark. His long fingers traced her goosebump covered skin. Andromeda could not help but shiver. They rarely did this her and Severus; it was far more her thing than his. Some might question why she allowed him to do this to her. She was no fool; there were problematic aspects of their relationship, but this was not one of them.

This form of sex was Andromeda’s choice—she felt as free as she had ever been handing control over to him. In lack of control, Andromeda found serenity. 

Severus said, ”You okay? All is good?”

She nodded.

”Use your words,” he commanded. 

”Yes, I am good.”

A spider-like hand gripped her right hip just for a second. Then it parted her legs. He wasn't; he knew it drove her mad. She was too close for him to do such a thing. And yet he was. 

Fingers, she did not know how many were inside of her. His mouth on her clit, sucking it. She wanted to tangle her hands in his hair to guide him. To stop him. But that was the whole point. That was whyshe liked this. Her ever speeding, jumbled, bouncing panicking mind? Was allowed to shut off. His mouth had replaced his fingers at her core. 

Her nerves felt as if something had lit a match under them. She was both shivering and unable to catch her breath. She was so close. The fire in her belly, her core was shattering into a million pieces...And then he stopped. 

Severus smiled down at her a single eyebrow raised, ”Something wrong?”

She breathlessly said, ”You bloody well know what is wrong!”

Severus leaned down a kiss to her left knee, then her hip, then her belly, he sucked on one nipple and toyed with the other. Andromeda groaned, “You're an utter bastard.”

He removed his mouth. ”My parents were married when I was born sweetheart — one of the only things they did right.”

She snarled,” You know what I mean.”

Severus laughed a real true amused as sure as she was breathing laugh. They needed this. The rest of the world could burn for all Andromeda cared at this moment. ”What can I do to make it better, Andy?”

”Fuck me, and stop playing your bloody stupid games.”

Long fingers untangled the silk rope from her wrists. She rubbed them; Severus asked her, ”Nothing hurts?”

”My big, wicked, dark wizard, I enjoyed that far too much, now shut your mouth and fuck me.”

His lips were on hers as the last word left them. Fingers on both people tangled into long hair, she wanted to have every single part of this man. She yearned to imprint on his very soul, to remove the dark lord’s claim and stake her own. This was her husband, her soulmate; no one else had a right to claim him. 

He was inside of her, filling her in a way fingers, even his long ones, never could. Andy felt his teeth graze her shoulder. Her legs wrapped around Severus’s hip. She was close. So close. Just a little bit more...

Piano fingers found it, between them, that thing that sent shivers through her body. She felt herself screaming. He came on her inner thigh. They didn't need another child.

This was their compromise. He knew potions weren't always totally effective; maybe it was the potion’s master in him. Or perhaps just the way his mind worked. One percent was still one out of a hundred, and with their luck, it would be them. 

Severus flopped down next to her; he muttered, ”How did I get so lucky? What did I do in a past life to deserve you? How is it this ugly, wretched, street rat ends up with the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on?”

She laid her lightly tanned hand on his heart, ”I should be the one saying such things Severus. But, you know what would make you an even better husband?” She kissed his neck and spoke into his ear, ”Go get a washcloth so I can get cleaned up.”

He laughed; she could feel it under her fingers as well as hear it. ”Yes, my queen.” He kissed her head and got out of bed.

***********************

It was Thursday; Andromeda knew she should not be here. She should not be in this park, standing here as the wind whipped both her cloak and hair around her. But she was here. She was waiting for Sirius. Her love for her daughter would permanently outweigh the love she felt for Severus. Soulmate or not. She was Lyra’s mother. It was her job to protect her child from all that come what may. 

Even if it meant damning all the rest, she loved to whatever their fate may be. Even Severus if it came down to it. She was a Slytherin, save your skin first and foremost. But she was a mother as well. Which meant her child was far more important than her own hide. 

Severus’s favorite dinner had been her way of saying sorry without speaking a word. The lovemaking, on the other hand, had been a balm on her soul. She felt tears; she did not know she was shedding flowed down her cheek. She sat on the ground, folding into herself, Merlin if there was a God, she pleaded with him to strike her down. But, knowing her luck, God was a woman, and she was laughing. Andromeda had made her bed now she had to bloody well lie in it. 

She had to convince her husband to turn traitor. Andromeda did not want to choose. If she could split herself in half, she would— a piece to protect her daughter and a piece to be with her Severus. She did what had been her mother’s first lesson to her daughters— shove those pesky emotions down. She dried her tears and stood up. She could see Sirius now, his stupid muggle leather jacket and his wavy windswept hair. 

Is this what signing your death sentence felt like? Because that's what it felt like to her. Or maybe she was signing Severus’s. Or was it his warrant?

*******************

Dumbledore was as Andromeda had remembered him to be, grandfatherly, powerful, and bloody cunning as a fox. The man was brave to the point of sheer absurdity, but he was also as treacherous as any Slytherin she had ever met. 

Gryffindors and Slytherins tried to pretend as if they were so different, but they were merely different sides of the same coin. They were as distinct as the white and black chess pieces, but they played the same game. They both knew that they had to take the other out to win, and there were only so many ways to do such a thing. 

He turned his steely blue eyes on her, ”Now, Mrs. Snape, we are grateful for the information you gave us, the rat has been done away with. But what else do you have to offer? You're asking us to not only defend yourself for the actions you have done, which is fine, but also your husband, a marked member of the inner circle. That Miss is quite another story, so what else do you have to offer?”

Andromeda twisted her wedding ring around her finger, the gold band shined in the candlelight. ”I offer you a way to get a spy of your own in the death eater’s, and it's Mrs. Prince, my husband inherited his title before we were married.”

Sirius said, ”But you are not a death eater! Don't mark yourself for that bastard!”

Dumbledore held up one wrinkled hand to quiet her cousin. 

”You will never fully trust my husband or me even if we can convert him to your side, but I can bring someone of your choosing to a meeting and get them marked— one entrance to their halls and one on the way out.”

Sirius said, ”That’s yourself, though, what about Snivy, that's who you want to save.”

Andromeda said, ”The rat, Sirius, Pettigrew bought my freedom. Did you know he was the reason, people, we're having their homes attacked? He was giving the death eaters their very heads on platters. Because of me, that will no longer happen. Not you. Not Dumbledore. Not Potter.”

Sirius snarled like the dog he sometimes turned into. ”And your husband has put people in the ground himself. Why should he not rot in Azkaban with the rest of them?”

Andromeda stared at the gold wedding band on her left finger, then at the bracelet on her wrist. It was simple; a heart-shaped locket hung off of it. It had once Eileen Prince’s; it held in it now a photo of Lyra. Her husband had given it to her when her daughter was born. She would die for her family, not her sisters, not her brother-in-law, not her father, but her daughter and her husband. They were now her family. She was a Prince, not a Black, at least not anymore.

She said harshly the pain of all that weighed her down evident, ”Because if not Sirius Orion Black, I will walk straight out of this room and never look back. This is the one chance you have to get someone on the inside; I hold the cards— not you. You have all the things to lose; I do not. I am the wife of a man who will do everything in his power to protect myself and my daughter. 

I want to bring that monster down, but I will not lose my family in the process, and if that makes me a dreadful person? So be it. There are worse things than doing something to protect those I love. So what shall it be? Let one death eater get off lightly or watch muggleborns be loaded into carts? We already know Lucius will walk once this war ends, his solicitors will get him off. This, by far, is no different. But, instead of money, I am paying you with information and help. 

Not all the guilty people end up in jail, Sirius, the world does not play by your Gryffindor morals. Sometimes you must let a guilty man get off free so innocents will not be harmed. He is a father, a husband, and a friend. There are far worse people who I could be insisting be given the damping bracelet or house arrest. Like my sister, Bellatrix, who tried to kill my daughter because of her blood status.”

Sirius said, ”But Snape’s a pureblood...”

”No, my husband is a halfblood, as is my daughter.”

Her cousin snarled, ”Then he's even worse than the rest of them he's killing his own kind. If she’s a halfblood, then one of his parents was a muggle or a muggleborn!”

She stood up; Andromeda knew she had them within her grasp; she just had to finish it off perfectly. ”I have no time for this rambling any longer. Make your choice. Now.”

The Gryffindors stared at each other, blue eyes to blue. 

Sirius said, ”Fucking hell, mother always wanted to me to become a death eater, now she will one day know I was the one who helped bring him down from the inside. But, I am only doing this for Marlene. And I get to do whatever I please to those who killed her.”

”Who?” she asked him. 

”She was my soulmate,” said Sirius.

”No, who killed her?” she asked.

”Rabastan Lestrange.”

She said, ”Good, because part of why Severus may be willing to switch sides is if he knows Bellatrix will be locked away or killed.”

”But, she's family.”

Andromeda laughed a mocking tone, ”And so were you until aunt Walburga blasted you off the tree. If she can do that for something stupid, then I am allowed to blast my sister off for trying to kill my daughter. Bella, who was once my sister, is dead. She died long ago, now the kindest thing to do would be to lock her away, so she can't hurt anyone else.”

Sirius asked her, ”Did you take Snape’s black heart along with his ring at your wedding?”

”No, you have forgotten what it means to be a member of our family. You should remember quickly, Sirius, because you're leaving the lion’s den for the snake pit now.”

”Andromeda?”

”Yes?” 

Sirius said, ”Do try and be safe. I may not like you anymore, I may not trust you, and I might downright hate parts of you, but your daughter needs someone beyond Snape to be anything close to normal.”

She sighed and shook her head. He could not be “serious” to save his life or anyone else’s. ”The next death eater gathering is in two weeks and a day, Sirius; it's a ball. Do dress well.”

He nodded, and Andy realized she was likely going to regret this. All of this, no matter which way it ended up going. However, no matter what side won, she, Severus, and their daughter would be relatively safe no matter what, and that's what mattered most above all else.

**************************

The moment Andy stepped inside her front door Severus was on her like a panther; he backed her up against the wall wand at her neck. His black eyes had an insane look to them. 

He snarled, ”Why must you cheat on me with him, of all people? Black, he's your cousin, he's my enemy, and in doing so, you put everyone in danger most of all our daughter. Bellatrix already wants to kill her. Why do you give her any more bloody reason? If you do not value your own life— at least value Lyra’s.”

Andromeda laughed soundly, the sheer insanity of the day, the emotion of it all finally thoroughly getting to her. 

Severus snapped, ”What is so funny?”

”You think I would cheat on you? With him? Risk our daughter’s life? Are you that bloody mental Severus? Are you that fucking paranoid? I met him to protect our daughter. To protect Lyra and ourselves. But mostly you, you stupid, ignorant fool. You are one of the smartest people I know, Severus, but sometimes you are also one of the dumbest. 

Sirius lost his soulmate to a muggle attack, wrong place wrong time. He wants to join our cause, so he contacted me.”

He said, ”No, that must not be true. He's Black; he's the Gryffindor of Gryffindors. He wouldn't betray his friends.”

She said, ”He’s not Severus, his deal for joining is his friend must be left alone. But he's an Auror, so that makes it worth it, doesn't it?”

Severus shut his eyes and said, ”I assume you invited him to the ball?”

”Of course. I did.”

He kissed her and said, ”I am sorry, Andy. I am a fool, aren't I?”

”My fool, though. I should have told you, Severus, but I feared it wouldn't pan out, and it would be all for nothing. I wanted to offer the dark lord a trade, Sirius, in place of not one day marking our daughter. Do you think he will accept?”

Severus said, ”Of course he will, a spy within the order? A real one, not one who disappears and does not come when called anymore? Surely. How did you get so smart, witch?”

She laughed, ”I always have been. Now, how's my baby?”

As Andromeda fed Lyra that night, it felt as if she swallowed a rock. She was not lying to him. Sirius was a gift to the dark lord, be in a way he was also a human trojan horse. What Severus did not know would not hurt him. When he started to lean to the side closer to neutrality, she would tell him the truth, or at least that's what she told herself. 

But, the truth is the best kind of lies; you even believe yourself. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
